Always Double Check To Make Sure You Set An Alarm Right
by hellointernet
Summary: Kagura smiles and does the only thing a Yato girl with her clock gone can do in this situation: she plays Jan-Ken-Pon with him.


Kagura is seven and painfully aware of the ticking on the inside of her wrist. It sounds like any other clock in the world. _Tick, tick, tick._

Down goes the counter, away goes the time. Except it's not like any other clock in the universe.

In the planet, maybe. But the whole universe? No.

At least that's what Papi tells her. That clock is only for their kind (because they need it more than any other race, because they need a little more love, because they have too much bloodlust to pursue anything else without being told or forced), counting down until they find the one.

The one that will change everything for them. The one who will fill their days with sunshine instead of rain. The one will patch up their wounds instead of being the one to cause it. _That_ person.

Mami was that person for Papi. But not anymore, Kagura thinks.

Because Mami is lying prone on the bed. Because Papi is not Papi, but rather a whirlwind of rain that comes once a month (or maybe it was once a year) for a quick dinner and then leaves the next morning, a puddle of water and sometimes blood in his wake.

She picks at the bandages on her wrist – the white that covers the black, bold numbers and dots. The black that thrums through her veins with every tick. Last time she checked, it had been a little over seven years. Seven years and she'll meet her _that person._ And that was only a month ago.

She looks to her side – to Kamui, the brother that she could depend on, the shade in the sun, the rock in the river, the umbrella in the rain. Kagura studies the similarly bandaged hands, only more blood-spattered – they both had decided years ago that this clock thing was nonsense.

What are you supposed to do when the clock stops? When you meet the person? What's the point if they turned out like Mami and Papi? What are you supposed to do _then_?

So they both decided to cover the clock. The thrumming can course through their veins all they like. Who cares if _that_ stopped? All for the better.

They're fighting fate, Kagura knew. Her brother because he didn't believe in this – what use was _that person_ supposed to be? Their kind was destined for battlefields and that's where they'll live (and die).

At least that's what she thinks. Kamui never mentioned why he was so determined to cover up his wrist, never taking them off unless the bandages became too bloodied.

Her?

Kagura doesn't know – not sure. Maybe she keeps the bandages because Kamui does it and she's the little sister who copies him. Maybe because she didn't want to see the stark black against her pale skin, so startling contrasting. Maybe because she was determined to decide her own fate, not because of something a stupid clock told her.

Maybe she's fighting against fate because that's the only thing she knows how to do, only thing she was taught by her brother, father and even mother: fight. Fight for all she's worth because someday, that may be the only thing she's worth.

Still, it doesn't stop her from peeking below the white, trying to see the black by moonlight when the lights are out and her brother is snoring away beside her.

* * *

What happens if the clock stops? Kagura asks this to everyone she meets. Papi, Mami, Kamui, Sadaharu and even the old man down the street that threatened to kill her once.

"The clock stops because you meet that person. Your true love," Mami whispers so soft that she has to lean to capture the words, lest the wind and rain carries them away.

True love, she thinks, can turn into a lie.

Kamui snorts at the question. "The clock is stupid," he argues. "It's pointless. Who cares about them? They're not going to show up and declare peace and love like some kind of royal idiot. Everyone fights us."

That's because you start a fight with them, she silently thinks.

Papi's answer is blunt or it just might be because he's halfway out the door, umbrella already open. "It stops because you're right in front of _that person_."

The wind slams the door but Papi might as well be the one who does it.

The old man down the street snarls at her before she finishes her questions. Kamui breaks his nose for it and she has to physically drag the redhead away before he maims or gets maimed.

Kagura can't help but think, does it really have to be a person? What if her clock stopped when she looked at a fish or a cat? Wouldn't that be easier than to maintain something semblance of a relationship like Mami and Papi? That would be easier than some stupid looking prince coming and declaring peace and love.

What was she supposed to do with _that_?

She asks Sadaharu quietly in the night – not that it mattered because her brother was gone and Mami's coughing covered up anything she said. The bunny merely struggles to get out of Kagura's hands. She hugs it close.

In the morning, Sadaharu is dead and she wonders, was that its answer?

* * *

She ages a month or so when the question pops into her mind. What happens if the clock stops and you _don't_ meet _that person?_ What if you're staring into space but your clock stops? What if the clock doesn't finish its countdown but stops?

What then? Who was going to tend the wounds? Who was going to fill the rain with sunshine? Who was going to change anything for _them_?

Kagura asks Mami first, because she was the easiest to ask. But she was the hardest one to get an answer out of.

She only got an "I… know… love… don't… hate…" with a lot of coughs, wheezes and gasps. Kagura leaves the room to make some porridge.

* * *

She asks Kamui one night as she brings out the first aid kit. She makes sure his hands were palms down before unwrapping the once again bloodied bandages.

Her brother closes his eyes, smiling. She does the same because she shouldn't pry. It wasn't right for her to know when her brother's _person_ was coming while he himself doesn't.

Kagura wraps the bandages blind around his wrist. Once she's sure the bandages are secured, she inspects the damage. A lot of blood. But not Kamui's. His knuckles are only bruised.

She takes the washcloth and starts on scrubbing the blood off his hands. She asks the question again, wondering if her brother heard her the first time. The rain can be loud at times.

It is only then that Kamui eyes open and gives her the deadliest glare that she had ever seen from blue eyes.

Kagura flinches and her hands pause momentarily. She throws the wash cloth in his face and stalks off, huffing.

"It was only a question. You didn't need to get so mad. You can do the bandages yourself, idiot big brother."

The next morning, the kit and bandages are soaked with leaking rain water and Kamui is nowhere to be found.

* * *

Papi comes back home the day after that. They have a quick dinner in which Kamui is not present. She suspects her brother's out in some alley – but then, there's nothing but alleys in their area.

She pops the question right after their finish their soup (or more like warm water with a piece of lettuce). Papi is going to leave soon, probably in the middle of the night or as he claims, before dawn (this was pretty ambiguous since rain covers whatever dawn they have).

"I don't know, Kagura," he sighs tiredly. Nowadays, he does everything tiredly. "That would have to happen to the really unlucky ones. After all, you've got a whole universe to find _that person_ and the only way the clock will stop is if you find them or they're not there anymore. And despite what our kind does, people don't just drop dead."

"The clock stops if _that person_ dies?" This is new information. Information that makes her blood run cold and sets her heart on fire.

Yes, she keeps her wrist hidden and fights against the clock but it's not like she wants the other person _dead_. Not until she meets them and decides if she wants to spend time them and get married and the whole shebang (but not a shotgun wedding – she _will not_ turn out like Papi and Mami).

"Does the clock start up again? Can you get another person?" she demands because she _has_ to know. She really needs to know. Maybe this is why the old man down the street is so bitter. Maybe this is why a lot of people in the alleys glare at her. Maybe all of their clocks stopped before they could meet _that person_. Maybe this is why Ka –

"I don't know, Kagura," Papi repeats in that tired voice. Kagura lets it go because it's not fair for her to pepper Papi with questions when he's been fighting monsters of all kinds imaginable in the universe.

Then again, it's not fair that Papi spends more of his life outside with monsters than with them in here. What does _that_ say about them?

"Alright. Good night, Papi."

The Great Umibozu is nowhere to be seen the next morning. The clock ticks through her veins, as if reassuring her that it's not gone, her _that person_ is not gone.

Yet.

* * *

"I'm sorry," she half yells, half whispers. She wonders if he can hear her through the rain. She repeats in that hoarse voice. "I'm sorry."

Kagura blinks rapidly. She _will not_ cry because he hates crying and will hate her more if she cried.

"What are you sorry for, idiot little sister?" Despite only being separated by a few steps, her brother's back has never looked so far away, never so out of reach.

 _Sorry for everything. Sorry I make watery porridge. Sorry I keep taking food that you saved for last. Sorry I threw bandages at you and asked you that question. Sorry I secretly look under my bandages. Sorry that Mami's medicine is not working. Sorry Papi tried to kill you. Sorry, sorry, sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry._

Please stay, is what she wants to say. But that would never work because she knows he's hell-bent on leaving this shithole. Because Papi just tried to kill him and there was no going back from that. Instead she says, "Take me with you."

 _Because I don't want to be alone._

Guilt burrows in her and clenches her heart. Papi will be left alone with Mami then. But Papi will leave – he _always_ does, no matter what – and Mami will be all alone then. But Kamui will also be alone and that thought squeezes her heart more than guilt or any other emotion combined.

"I told you before," he says with deliberate slowness, half turning so she can see the smile (the new twisted, twisted smile) under the umbrella. "I have no use for weaklings."

She could've yelled. She could've cried. She could've chased after him and followed him with only the clothes on her back – after all, she has her umbrella and Yatos really only need that.

Instead she watches him leave, the mauve umbrella bobbing and bobbing until it no longer bobs and becomes a speck in the distance.

The clock throbs in her veins and she wonders if _that person_ could really bring sunshine to this never ending rain (and to her brother's never ending rain too).

She's suddenly not eager to find out.

* * *

Mami dies. She's the only one there when Mami smiles the shaky smile one last time and fumbles for her hand. She's the only one there to hear Mami whisper with her last breath, "Save…."

She's not sure what Mami means by that. Save who? What?

Why? Why would she save anyone when all they've been are bastards who won't even offer her a dumpling? When all they do is snarl and try to beat her into a pulp for no good reason?

Why should she save Papi when all he's been doing is bringing back money and goddammit, he's not even here! Why should she save Kamui when he disappeared and doesn't even write back home, when he left her all alone? Why, why, whywhy _why_?

Kagura carries Mami to the outskirts of town – _ruins_ – where she had dug a grave into the ground under a half drowned tree. Hopefully the tree will give enough shelter to Mami.

She carefully lowers Mami into the grave, mindful about not getting any mud on her. Mami does get wet because it's this kind of weather and Kagura gets soaked to the bone for her trouble.

If her brother was here, he would've been holding an umbrella for them.

Or maybe he would've shoved her into the grave and shot her right through the heart – a merciful death for their kind.

She shoves that thought out of her head because it was too realistic.

After filling up the grave, she sits and stares towards town and then finally, decides. Yes, she was going to save. She was going to save herself, save Papi, save _Kamui_. Hell, save their whole race, if she has to.

Save, save, save, save.

She unwraps the bandage around her wrist and stares – _glares_ – at the black numbers. It had lessened considerably. No more seven years. Just months and days left.

Kagura dreads it and longs for it. Just to have someone. Someone who would be with her and not leave for months, years on end. Someone who wouldn't dump her with an enraged father, dying mother and a cold, cold house. Someone who wouldn't cough nerve wrecking coughs and just stay with her, unfaltering.

Just _someone_.

She covers her wrist, tightens the bandages and starts her last trek into town.

* * *

She never intended to go to Earth. Not exactly. Just somewhere out of the home planet was good enough. Earth just happened to be the place she arrives.

Kagura thinks back to her note to Papi, probably half drenched with runny ink or maybe already blown away by the wind. 'I'm leaving. I'll send word when I arrive wherever,' it says.

She wonders if it was was too blunt but it's better than Kamui leaving without a word. Right?

Besides, Papi never writes notes when _he_ leaves.

She goes to the nearest post office and writes on a piece of spare advertisement she found in the trash. 'Earth.' Then after a thought, she added, 'Edo.'

She stuffs it into a handmade envelope and merely write, 'To Umibozu'. Wherever the hell it ends up was its (her) luck. The redhead leaves the note on the front desk of the post office with a few coins and ignores the yells of the clerk that she needs to write a specific address.

* * *

Her blood thrums and she's not sure if it was from excitement of a new life – a life where the sun was out for most of the time – or if it was from the clock. Only 8 more months and 23 days left until _that_ person shows up.

She finds work with an afro man because, in Edo, swiping food off the stall was not acceptable (duh) and more importantly, felt _wrong_. At least in her hometown, it felt more normal and not like she was bullying people with her strength and umbrella. At least back home, there was less guilt (ironic, isn't it?).

Kagura is a fighter and the gang sees it right away. She gets food, a place to sleep and gets to let out the thrumming – not the clock's, which she still kept bandaged up, but a new thrumming that tells her to punch people's face and break buildings for no reason other than to see blood and rubble – with a good cause. Because she's helping the gang and afro man. She's saving them.

Right?

The redhead reminds herself that she's fighting for good and there's good food so what more could she want? But just like back on the home-planet, she wants out. She wants out, even if it meant she had to go back to eating only rice. She wants out of this beating up French-breaded hair thugs with shiny tattoos. She wants out of seeing blood and broken teeth, out of the grazes of her knuckles that reminds her that she's still in the rain and nothing has changed except there's more sun that she can't see.

Kagura wants out _so bad_.

She runs, only to have a scooter crash into her.

* * *

Kagura likes this new place. Likes how they treat her, not like a fearsome Yato to be left alone with her rice but as a girl. A girl whom it was okay to beat up and scold if she broke something. A girl who slept in a closet with her dog (and not have to worry about crushing it to death). A girl who could fight with someone for the T.V. remote like it held all the power in the world. A girl who could enjoy the sun when they went on trips to the convenience store.

It feels nice. It feels good. She's not saving anyone yet but that's okay. Because Gin-chan and Shinpachi are here.

It is Gin-chan who asks about the bandages on her wrist. She answers him truthfully because she'd always been bad at lying. Kagura tells him about how all Yatos have a clock on their wrist, how it counts down to _that person_ , how the tick thrums through their veins as a constant reminder, how she covers it up because she's fighting against an invisible force.

She doesn't mention the once idolized brother, or the dead mother drowning under a tree or even the balding father who saves planets on a daily basis.

The silver haired merely blinks those dead fish eyes, picks his nose and asks if the bandages are itchy.

They _are_ itchy, especially since she hasn't changed them in a while. But it's a constant itch that she grew up with.

Kagura slowly peels the bandages off and shows it to Gin-chan. "How much time do I have left?" she asks, sounding like she was on her way to execution.

Gin-chan pokes at her wrist and says, "I don't see anything. Maybe only Yatos – only you can see it. Amantos are weird like that."

Her eyes fly open. She hadn't even considered that. The numbers were always there, standing out against the white of her skin. It was the same for all Yatos. Back at the planet, everyone could see each others'. That's why her brother and her covered it up.

But maybe what Gin-chan said is true. Maybe Yatos have weird eyes, just like how they have weird skin or weird strength. Maybe Earthlings or stupid princes of Hata can't see them.

Then she stares at the black, dumbfounded. It's merely days before _that person_ comes into her life.

* * *

Kagura is restless. She paces around and glances at her newly uncovered wrist. Days. Or specifically, 12 days. That's less than two weeks.

What was she supposed to do? Should she actively find someone who she likes? Or should she wait? Should she cover the numbers up again?

She never expected _that person_ to be someone of the other race, someone on Earth. She always thought she was going to meet _that person_ in the middle of dreary rain and maybe, just maybe, the rain might stop and the sun might come through when they saw each other.

But then again, she always thought her brother would be there with her, there to protect her from all the bloodthirsty homeless monsters or even beat up _that person_ in case he turned out nasty and brutish like all the other children near their creaky house. She never thought her brother would turn into one of those bloodthirsty, nasty and brutish monsters.

Funny how life's jokes work.

Gin-chan gets frustrated with her pacing. "Why are you so worried about that thing? Just do what you usually do. It's not going to work if you try to find your… person." He picks his nose. "Just ignore it. You've been fighting against that thing for years so if the person turns out to be ugly and bald, just smash his face to the ground or something. You don't _have_ to follow that thing, right? It's not like you're going to blow up, right?"

The redhead paused. Those words were so alike what her brother had said years ago. The clock was stupid. You don't have to follow what it says.

So alike yet so different.

She smiles and stretches. Might as well go buy some sukunbo to pass time.

* * *

The clock is down to minutes. She looks over at the people around her.

Gin-chan. Shinpachi. Anego.

Was _that person_ one of them? She met them before so the clock should've stopped, right?

Or maybe it's a certain sakura petal. Maybe that's her _person_. A rational part of her tells her it's probably someone in the crowd, someone who was sitting on their own tablecloths, enjoying the view of falling pink.

Her insides churns. What was it going to be like? Was her heart going to go 'doki doki' like in Gin-chan's Jump (though in there, the heart racing was more of an 'I'm-going-to-die!' kind of racing)? Was she going to go into shock? Blush so hard that she passed out from overheating?

Then: What if she accidentally hits that person? What if she gives him brain damage? What if she meets him but he gets so repulsed and scared of her being a Yato that he killed himself? There's no way that could happen, right? Because the other party wouldn't know that he was _that person_.

She hasn't considered that. She never asked about this. How was _that person_ supposed to know about her? How was she supposed to convince _that person_ that she was his _that person_? Was there going to be some kind of invisible bond between them? Like a red string from those shoujo mangas Gin-chan secretly reads?

What if _that person_ didn't want her as his _that person_?

Kagura worriedly glances at her surroundings, ignoring the mass of black uniformed men. Their leader argues with Gin-chan but she keeps quiet, only offering a biting remark here and there when it's really needed.

She snaps out of her panic when Shinpachi tells her they are going to play Jan-Ken-Pon and explains the rules. Something about rocks, papers, scissors and hitting. She nods, wondering who her opponent is and if he is going to be able to stand her hits.

Oh god, what if the opponent is _that person_ and she really gives him brain damage.

She cheers on as Anego gives the gorilla-stalker a beating and ignores the commentary of Shinpachi and that other Shinpachi-like normal guy from the Shin-shin-something. She focuses on the words that Gin-chan – they were going to win a sausage! How cool was that?! Maybe that will be her _that person_ and she won't be giving out brain damage to anyone.

Then it is her turn. She surreptitiously rubs her wrist.

Kagura stares at the male in front of her. Sandy brown hair, red eyes like Gin-chan's, though his are browner. A pretty boy, really. Maybe he's weak – pretty boys usually tend to be (though Kamui is a whole other story). But he's wearing a uniform like the stalking commander and the V-bangs leader. So maybe he's strong.

"Okita Sougo," he introduces himself.

Then it happens.

The thrumming in her veins stops. There's no beeping from her wrist or in her head; only silence. She feels utterly calm and even the fight-thrumming subdues itself. There is no blushing, no overheating, no brain damaging (well, _yet_ ) and no heart racing. Just utter calm, like she's in that one spot where there's no rain – the eye of the storm, Kamui had told her.

The black on her wrist fades slowly, number by number, and she's staring at _that person_.

"Kagura," she hears herself say, more out of reflex than anything. This person, this human, _Okita Sougo_ is _that person_.

He gives the slightest of nods. "China," he says, giving her clothes a pointed glance.

She doesn't feel self-conscious, even though she knows there's probably a stain from the dango sauce somewhere. She stares back at him. No one pays attention to them.

Half the crowd is busy tending to their gorilla and the other half is discussing whether or not they want to try Anego the Demon Queen. Even Shinpachi's too busy yelling at Gin-chan and V-bangs getting drunk off their asses.

Kagura smiles and does the only thing a Yato girl with her clock gone – a Yato girl who's fighting to save her Papi, brother and maybe even her entire race, whose mother is in the ground and who _just_ _might_ finally in the sunshine – can do in this situation.

She plays Jan-Ken-Pon with him.

* * *

 _This was originally inspired from a tumblr post that someone pinned on Pintrest. What if people had a timer on their wrist that counts down to when they meet their soulmates? And of course, that inspired some writers of tumblr to write vignettes about different situations: people who weren't satisfied with their soul mates, soul mate dies right in front of their eyes, soul mate is really your crush and everything works out yay! etc._

 _So I thought, why not put that situation to someone in a series? And who better to have soul mate countdown than bloodthirsty Yatos, right? (The idea was that all Yatos can see the timers, their own or others. Not-Yatos can't see them... I don't know why. That just popped up randomly as I was writing this). And thus, this was born. Also, because I really ship Okikagu, though this is more about Kagura's childhood. I can't seem to write that much on what happened after she meets Gin since that's kind of there already and... I just really like Kagura's sad childhood and dysfunctional family time, okay?_

 _Sorry about any grammar mistakes that might be in here. I'm more used to writing in past tense. Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated._


End file.
